A short history of fishing baits

It’s no surprise that the staple baits of anglers from time immemorial
have been worms, paste and maggots. Today on commercials and rivers alike, these are still recognised as basic, but nevertheless key baits! But was it ever thus?

Fishing pellets

Secrets of angling

Take this short verse from John Denny’s the 'Secrets of Angling' from 1613:

The roach, the bream, the carpe, the Chub and Bleik,With paste or corne, their greedy hunger tame,The dace, the Ruffe, the Goodgion and the rest,The smaller sort of crawling worms loue best.The Chaueunder and Chub doe more delight,To feede on cheese or Cherries red,Black snayles, their bellies slit to show their white,Or grasshoppers that skip in euery Meade,The Perche, the Tench, the Eele, doth rather biteAt great red worms, in Field or Garden bred.

Bazley’s baits

Jim Bazley, twice winner of the All England Championship in 1909 and 1926, described 'wasp grub' as being 'like plum duff amongst a lot of schoolboys'. In 1917, he introduced the use of 'macaroni' on a large treble hook and emphasised how the use of coloured baits ran with the seasons. But on one count he was sadly wrong. He felt there was no advantage in taking a 'chemist shop' to the bank. My goodness he would have struggled on commercials today!

Maggots

Pith and brains

Bazley celebrated the use of pith and brains – baits that have now been out of fashion for almost a century. Bullocks pith was derived from the backbone, boiled and cut into chunks, the most succulent and soft pieces for the hook. Brains were universally used for chub and barbel after being boiled and mashed. William Bailey, that great Trent Angler, wrote in 1857 'The renowned Bendigo, when he goes chub fishing, and he is no novice at this game, takes half a hatful with him, and he is obliged to chew the brains before he throws them in.'

The humble worm

Back in the old days of the late 1800s and early 20th century, lobworms were the key bait for barbel on the Trent and later, the Hampshire Avon. Thousands were thrown into the swim, up to a week before fishing, as a means of 'baiting up'. Among the 'giants' of the angling world in the early 20th century was Jack Bailey, son of William, and F W K Wallis, who often fished two or three lobworms below an 'eagle' quill float, trotting the stream in search of big Hampshire Avon barbel. He was joint holder of the barbel record with a fish of 14 lbs 6 oz taken in 1937.

Casters

Izaak Walton on baits

To illustrate the wide use of man made baits, Izaak Walton wrote 'And as for pastes, there are almost as many sorts as there are medicines for toothache'. The 17th century paste included some elements which might have been scurrilously obtained from grave robbers like Burke and Hare – although they rose to fame somewhat later in the 19th century – 'Mummy Powder, Powdered Skull of a dead man, Man’s fat, Cat’s fat, Civet, Gum Ivy, Asafoetida and Camphor. So even in the 17th century, these special concoctions could be bought readymade, just as anglers do now, at 'The Sign of the Flying Horse, an Apothecaries in Carter Lane'.

Latterly, the innumerable variety of commercial fishery carp pastes, and pellets, continue to multiply almost daily – but will they stay on the hook as it were and stay the course like the 'old' favourites? Who knows!

Squatts & other maggots

It is written that Jack Mason, who won the All-England Championship in 1908 with just three bream for 12lbs, was the 'man who invented squatts'. But this is not strictly true as they had been used years before in the North of England.

R E Fletcher wrote a wonderful pamphlet for the Bury and District Angling Society sometime in the 1920s. I wonder if Benny Ashurst read it for 'casted maggots' were mentioned as were 'yellow feed' (squatts). Specials bred on heart, liver or fish plus 'sour bran specials' – fat, succulent, juicy, soft skinned, pure white hook maggots were also prominently mentioned. By the late 1890s anglers were using Annatto, Chrysodine, Auromine and Rhodamine dyes, which caused so much uproar in the 1980s when they were linked with cancer.

Casters and Benny Ashurst

The 1925 All-England was won using chrysalis and there are records of anglers using this bait as early as 1865. Casters and Benny Ashurst go hand in hand. This great match angler who, through his numerous winning performances, particularly on the northern canals and River Trent, shot this 'new' bait to dizzy heights during the 1950s. What Benny did for the first time was work out how to commercially produce the loose feed 'sinker', the key that 'turned' this bait into the powerful feed and hook bait medium it is today.

Gozzers

Frank Oates and Billy Lane saw the advantage of the 'specials' which were soon nicknamed 'gozzers'. No self respecting bream angler would go fishing without them and much preparation went into their production for every match. Without 'gozzers' bream would not bite! This bait revolution went hand in hand with the trend towards legering for bream with the swing tip on the wide still waters.

Frank showed an innovative approach by illustrating 'cooked' maggots, bait that at one time or another everyone claims to have 'invented'. The bait is still popular today on fisheries where dead maggots form a carpet on the bottom.

The first boilie?

Boilies have been around commercially for more than 30 years. The bait revolution was pioneered by anglers like Gerry Savage, Duncan Kay and Fred Wilton who are remembered by Kevin Maddocks in his 1981 bestseller 'Carp Fever'. Oddly enough bread featured as one of the best carp baits. Who produced the first boilie and when? In 1952, this recipe appeared in one of the angling newspapers:

'Take a portion of breadcrumb Immerse in water Squeeze out the moisture Add self-raising flour and condensed milk Knead well Tie it up firmly in muslin BOIL for two minutes'.

Was that a boilie or not? Forgotten in the musty fishing books of old, lie many 'lost' baits. Brains, chandler’s greaves, macaroni, bullocks pith, potato and even 'Yorkshire' pudding. Well if you can’t use ‘em – you can always eat ‘em.

About this blog

John Essex was a key member of the legendary Leicester Likely Lads match team of the 1970’s. He picked up five first division one national championship team medals and was third overall in the 1975 match on the Nene, landing two carp, which was a remarkable angling feat at that time. John coached the Leicester juniors to five NFA junior titles and chaired Leicestershire Angling Federation for nearly 30 years

Still fishing weekly at club level, John is an avid collector of books and old tackle with an extensive library of nearly 1000 books. He will be releasing his first book, 'History of the National' shortly. John blogs for us about angling history and heritage.